Mental Health in Climate Change-Related Disasters and Migration

Tuğba MENTEŞE BABAYİĞİTa , Özlem ÖZCANb

aAksaray University Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aksaray, Türkiye
bİnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Malatya, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
Climate change and its consequences are known to be one of the most serious global health threats of the twenty-first century. Although children and adolescents are the group least responsible for causing climate change, they are the ones who will experience the most long-term consequences of climate change. Disasters caused by climate change and migration, which is one of the indirect effects of climate change, make children and adolescents vulnerable to many mental disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, sleep disorders, attachment disorders and substance abuse. In addition to psychopathologies, climate change-related consequences have also been shown to have effects such as decreased capacity of children to regulate their emotions, learning problems, behavioural problems, adaptation problems, delayed language development and low academic performance. All these together increase the susceptibility to mental disorders in adulthood. Taking swift and effective action plans to minimise these consequences is not only a national and international obligation, but also a humanitarian responsibility.
Keywords: Child and adolescent; mental health; climate change; ecoanxiety

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